


five for silver, six for gold

by Kt_fairy



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Emotional Constipation, Folklore, Gen, Halloween, Hurt/Comfort, I done another spooks, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Implied/Referenced Underage Drinking, M/M, Mentions of Myth & Folklore, Psychological Horror, Spooky, over use of birds
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-28
Updated: 2018-10-28
Packaged: 2019-08-08 11:24:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,107
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16428458
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kt_fairy/pseuds/Kt_fairy
Summary: Suddenly, gloriously, Dex was there, skidding in like like he was dumping someone off the puck and grabbed Derek by the back of his hoodie. He tugged and nearly slipped over, Derek scrabbling his feet against the ice to try and get some traction to help Dex haul him backwards.“Fuck off!” Dex yelled, which was so startlinglyhimthat Derek nearly burst into hysterical laughter.





	five for silver, six for gold

**Author's Note:**

> here I am back at it again with the spooks.

_One for sorrow_  
_Two for joy_  
_Three for a girl_  
_Four for a boy_  
_Five for silver_  
_Six for gold_  
_Seven for a secret never told_

_\- Traditional_

 

________________________________________________

 

 

 Derek was the good kind of schwasty. He was happy and silly but not out of control. Chris had declared that he was two tub juice's away from needing Nursey patrol to step in and Derek was down for keeping that way.

 

 He twisted past a group of Hop’s froshie buddies as he swayed out of the kitchen, opening one of those piss weak beers college kids liked to drink as he scanned the room.

 

 Louis had brought actual DJ-ing gear with him from Sweden so the den looked like a frat party in one of those ridiculous college movies. Proper speakers boomed out club music so loud it made your ears rattle, coloured lights shifting over the packed room with more effect than strings of fairy lights had ever had.

 

 Derek made to move past the den, who he was on the lookout for wouldn’t be in there unless Derek (or Bitty) had already dragged them in. Or so he thought. Derek stopped in his tracks, sloshing beer over his hand when he caught sight of ears and red hair turned muddy by the swaying green lights.

 

 Derek downed half the beer to lessen his chances of spilling it all over someone, pulling a face at the aftertaste. He gave himself a shake, waiting for a gap to appear amongst the press of bodies for him to slip into and start to make his way across the room towards The Freckled One. Or he would have if Dex didn’t keep on moving. One moment he was in the middle of the room, the next he was by the TV, then up by Louis. It was almost like he was trying to keep the same distance between them and Derek and was about to get insulted when he caught Dex escaping out from the edge of the dance floor.

 

 He excused himself from the girl who had come to dance on him and went to follow, stumbling out of the den just as Dex slipped through the front door.

 

 Derek frowned, going to follow when a familiar, firm grip tugged on his arm, “Nurse. Where are you going?”

 

 Derek turned and blinked at Dex, glancing back at the door before shrugging it off. “I thought you left!”

 

“What?”

 

“I thought I saw you leave!”

 

 Dex smiled, obviously tipsy, and shook his head. “I’ve been looking for you. I need you to come help me lose at beer pong.”

 

 “PONG!” Derek yelled. He threw his hands up in the air and winced when there was the splat of beer against the floorboards, grinning when Dex let out an ugly snort of a laugh.

 

 

_X_

 

 He didn’t like to be a total arts ho. A total ‘best years of my life at college’ ho. But Derek did like chilling by tree’s in the quad with his friends.

 

 There was a box of cookie’s on the overlap between Chris and Dex’s jackets that they were lounging on, Derek’s speakers playing quietly as background music to the story Cait was telling.

 

 Derek smiled as she did an unflattering impression of the Woke Girl in their Lit class, resettling his head on Dex’s thigh to ease the slight crick he was getting in his neck whilst trying not to jostle him too much. He glanced up at Dex to see if he had noticed, but he had had his whole attention turned towards Cait, the hint of a smile on his lips as he listened to her.

 

 He didn’t want to make too big a deal out of getting to lay his head on Dex’s leg, but his internal monologue was screaming into a bucket right now. Dex wasn’t tactile like Chris and Derek were, which was fine, personal boundaries were mad bueno. So to be allowed close like this felt exactly like when a cat you don’t know comes up to you on the street.

 

“You know I never learnt how to ride a bike,” Dex said, Derek watching him grin at the noise of indignation Cait made as Chris laughed at him. “I was driving my dad’s truck at nine so no….”

 

“At nine!”

 

“Long legs,” he explained, tone bone dry as he wiggled the leg not under Derek’s head, “When you can reach the pedals you can drive up in Maine.”

 

“Long leggy, much drive,” Derek piped up, giggling when Dex poked his cheek.

 

“And…” Dex didn’t usual go into detail about home, for reasons Derek could guess at but wasn't about to, and the team had taken to putting on an air of nonchalance whenever it looked like he was about to open up so as to not put him off by seeming over eager. Dex had told Derek once that he knew what they were doing, and when asked if he minded had just grunted in reply. He glanced down at Derek, letting his hand rest oh so gently on his arm as he turned back to the C’s. “My mom. She thought knowing how to use boats was more important, and….and how to swim ‘cause we lived by the sea - and for when we went on the frozen ponds in the wint…”

 

 There was a burst of chattering from the Maple tree over from them, loud enough that it cut Dex off and drew the attention of nearly everyone in the quad.

 

 Derek craned his head enough to see the people sat by that tree begin to pack up their stuff, propping himself up on his elbow to look up into canopy. “Chill,” he observed, regarding the birds settling into the branches a moment before flopping back into Dex’s lap. “That tree is where it’s at for the birbs brah.”

 

 He looked up at Dex, expecting him to be working up into a ‘ _well in Maine…_ ’ speech about ‘ _you city fuckers_ ’ never having seen a bird before. He was giving the tree the usual hard look he gave most things, but Derek knew him well enough to know it wasn’t just his default face this time.

 

“They’re Magpies!” Cait said to Chris, then turned back to them, “I’ve never seen so many together before. I didn’t even know they flocked or whatever.”

 

“Mad bad luck aren’t they?” Derek said, mostly to see Chris automatically glance around for a puck before shooting him a dirty look.

 

 Derek was about to chirp him when he heard Dex swear softly under his breath. He glanced up at Dex just as he shifted the hand on Derek’s arm to gently push at his shoulder. “I uhh. I gotta...can you shift Nursey,” he didn’t ask, but the fact it wasn’t an order - or that he hadn’t just shoved Derek off of him - was enough of a politeness from Dex that Derek sat up without comment. “I gotta thing - a group. I forgot about,” he mumbled, picking up his stuff. “Finish the cookie’s they’re for you guys anyway,” he shot them all a smile, glancing back at the tree as he headed off.

 

 Derek watched him go because Dex’s shitty dad jeans did nothing to hide his ass, trying to work out if that had been weird or just Dex being Dex. Chris and Cait were just coming out of one of their shared looks when he turned back to them. Derek shot them both a frown so they’d know he knew what they were doing even if he didn’t know that the look had been for.

 

“I thought only one was bad luck,” Chris said, glancing over at the now silent tree.

 

“What is there, like seven or eight of the little dudes up there? Does that make it seven times the bad luck?”

 

“Good thing us patriotic American’s didn’t sit under the Maple tree,” Cait said as she shoved a cookie in her mouth.

 

 

_X_

 

 It was late at night and the Frogs are up on the roof, watching the Waffles do whatever they were doing with four paddling pools, duct tape and a box cutter. The last one on the list seemed to physically pain Dex - the most unexpected nervous mother hen in the history of the world - whenever Louis picked it up.

 

“He’s Swedish,” Derek said, being careful to blow the smoke away from Dex as he handed the joint off to Cait. “He could out-knife you and Bit’s.”

 

“S’not him I’m worried about,” Dex muttered, taking a sip of the Miller High Life that Derek had got in for him cause the boy was a bougie fuck about beer but wouldn’t admit it. “It’s fucking Hops.”

 

“Mmmm,” Derek agreed, knocking his shoulder against Dex as he pointed to where Bully had an audience of freshmen. “Your waffle is better with the ladies than you ever were.”

 

“Fuck off,” Dex said, then laughed. “Whiskey is too,” he took another sip of his beer and sighed. “Better with guys too.”

 

 Derek gave him a sympathetic pat on the shoulder, letting his fingers trail down his arm as he leant back to rest on his hands.

 

“Ooh Ooh Ooh...he’s going in,” Cait said, Chris giggling as Bully sidled closer to the girls, pushing his hair out of his eyes in a way that would be mad hot if he wasn’t a Waffle.

 

 Bully wasn’t alone for long, waving over Hops, and then trying to wave over Louis but he was engrossed in whatever it was they were up to. Derek turned to Dex to remark on how Dex doing the exact same thing that was why he never got with anyone, but found Dex already looking at him. It was then that he became aware of his fingers covering Dex’s pinky and he froze, one of his swinging legs left hanging in midair as he looked right back at Dex. Always pretty, always a dick even if he was less of an asshole these days, always so golden and cold, so distant and yet so close…

 

 Derek shook the poetry out of his head, fingertips curling ever so slightly around Dex’s pinky when he turned to look up at the moon.

 

“You know moonlight?” he said in that quiet way he got when he was getting maudlin schwasty. “Well, back in the day, people used to think sitting in it would drive you mad.”

 

“The moon just up there chillin’, giving us tides and shit,” Derek protested. “What did she do?”

 

“Yeah!” Chris said, leaning over Cait and Derek to grab Dex’s arm and give him a shake. “Dex wouldn’t be our support lobster without it, and that is a true tragedy.”

 

 Dex shook his head. “Thanks?”

 

“Is the moon while you’re mad all the time?” Derek asked.

 

“Is the moon while you’re annoying as fuck?”

 

 Derek grinned at him. “She’s got my back, I’m a poet,” he reached out and poked a freckle on Dex’s cheek. “You’re a boy of the sun. All burning hot and bright and vital. How you blush…”

 

“I get you. Shit,” Dex _was_ blushing brightly now, a dark smudge on his skin in the half light, and Derek lent over to kiss his cheek. “Jackass.”

 

 Derek turned to say something to Cait, wanting to take a step back from what was outright flirting, when Dex muttered. “The moonlight makes you look all silver, you know.”

 

“Silver?”

 

“Yeah,” he touched his shoulder, and Derek was vaguely away of the C’s talking pointedly amongst themselves. “I didn’t...I never realised that was a thing. That could happen."

 

“Black skin is magic.”

 

 Dex made a noise of agreement, eyes flicking to the dark shadow of the LAX bros roof. “You glow but not in like a twilight way.”

 

 Derek laughed and leant into Dex side, too warm and high and happy to notice the chattering of Magpies from Lax house across the road.

 

 

_X_

 

 Derek shouldered into the Haus feeling tired and achy and frustrated. He dumped his bag in the hallway and stomped over the the kitchen, knowing he was channelling his ami as he crossed his arms over his chest and demanded, “I really thought we were past ignoring one another, brah. Mad not chill.”

 

 Dex looked up from where he was de-stoning cherries, the tips of his fingers and bottom lip stained red from the juice, and frowned. “What?”

 

“I called to you on the quad but you just kept on heading over to the lake!”

 

“I wa - I wasn’t by the lake quad?”

 

“Look…”

 

“When was this?”

 

“Like an hour ago.”

 

“Honey," Bitty said, leaning back so he could peer at Derek around Dex’s bulk, "he’s been helping me all afternoon."

 

“Seriously?”

 

“Yeah man,” Dex tapped the rim of a mixing bowl with his knife. “Thirdy’s kid’s got a birthday. I’m on pie duty.” 

 

"Oh,” Derek said, picking up his bag and moving into the kitchen to drop into one of the chairs by the table. “You have a double my friend.”

 

“Poor guy,” Dex snorted, making a noise of protest when Bitty whacked him on the arm.

 

“None of that Mister.”

 

“I meant to have Nursey running after him,” Dex joked, Derek laughing when Bitty whacked him again.

 

“None of that neither!” Bitty said with a shake of his head.

 

“You’ll have to hunt down your double and kill it before it kills you,” Derek said, noticing Dex’s shoulders tense and wondering how that could have possibly pissed him off. Dex shifted on his feet, awkwardness in every line of him, and Derek was about to change the subject when Dex twisted to throw a cherry that Nursey only mostly fumbled to catch.

 

“Bold of you to assume any Thing can kill me,” he said. There was something off about his tone, but Dex struggled with that a lot of the time so Derek ignored it, grinning at him as he popped the cherry in his mouth.

 

“I’d certainly like to see someone try.”

 

 Dex laughed, turning back to his pile of fruit as Bitty muttered something about baking bad thoughts into pie.

 

 

_X_

 

“It’s all mad Twee ya know?” Dex said as he settled down onto the damp grass, letting his resting stink eye scan over the quad.

 

“Honey. Twee?” Bitty laughed, the sound sweet and warm.

 

“Yeah.”

 

“Twee! Y’all can’t call a place twee when y’all go to Samwell.”

 

 Dex quirked an eyebrow, eyes warm and glinting with the smile he was trying to keep off his face - an expression he only ever got around Bitty. “Samwell is Classic American Architecture, this is just overly preserved for the brochure.”

 

For that Samwell was like Dartmouth - the grand period buildings, the picturesque quads with the pretty trees and neat lawns - there was something stuffy about this college. It reminded Derek of Andover, with all that old world stuffiness and the weight money behind it and the packs of overly straight preps moving through the halls. Not that Samwell didn't have those too, it was just full of brighter, better memories.

 

 They were both just as popular with Magpies though it seemed. The little dudes were hopping about all over the lawn going about their birdy business.

 

“Full bias of course," Bitty said to Dex, voice fond.

 

“Oh of course.”

 

 Bitty gave Dex a soft, benevolent smile and Derek looked back to his notebook. He clicked his pen compulsively a few times before scribbling down a string of words that had been echoing around his head.

 

 This campus, for all the aftertaste of Andover it gave Derek, was beautiful. He would have been glad to use these few hours they had to waste wandering around the campus in it's bright red, fall glory if that evening's game had not been hanging over him.

 

 Dartmouth were big and Dartmouth played hard. Without Ransom and Holster the SMH team felt very small. The Waffles weren’t all that small, he knew that, but they were so _young_. They had about as much experience against guys like Dartmouth’s first and second line as Derek - as all the frogs- had three years ago. Derek could remember looking at the Forward he was tasked with stopping and feeling suddenly very young and _very_ out of his depth.

 

 He clicked his pen again, watching Chris sharing a look with Dex over Bitty’s head as he fussed about something.

 

 Chris was meeting with development coaches and a couple of scouts had been sniffing around him and Dex. And slight, nervous Bitty was captain now. They had all turned out alright in the end. But they’d had Rans and Holzy, Shitty, Bitty, and Jack  _fucking_ Zimmermann helping them out. The Waffles just had the Frogs to look up to and learn from, and they were all garbage messes. Even Chris, he just hid it well.

 

 Derek slipped the pen into the spine of his book and flicked it closed. He shoved it into his jacket pocket and shuffled closer to Chris, shooting him a quick smile when he bumped their shoulders together.

 

 He used to depend on writing for everything, to express joy and frustration and anxiety. It was better than getting wasted, which had been his only other way to cope until he came to Samwell. Now he could sit here and speak his worries out loud in front of his friends and the chatter going on around him would drop and everyone - even Dex - would listen, and they would care. Really care. Derek dipped his chin into his hoodie and smiled to himself. Just knowing they'd all be there when he needed them was enough sometimes.

 

 On reflection, maybe the Frogs weren’t all that much of a mess. The team missed Jack when it came to the league table, but it hadn't fallen apart. SMH were an even stronger unit than they had been the year before, and Derek did not think it would be unreasonable to hope that it would be even stronger when they, the Frogs, left for bigger and maybe not quite so better things.

 

He didn’t let himself think about what that would be like, smiling instead when Bitty scooted out of the way as C and Dex looked ready to start wrestling.

 

“Preemptive Strike!” he yelled and jumped on the both of them, getting a swearing Chris in a headlock as he laid on a laughing Dex.

 

“Come on now y’all. Not in front of the opposition,” Bitty said gently, a fond lilt to his voice. “And especially not in front of the Waffles. Lord above you’re supposed to be an example!”

 

“We are setting the example of not giving a fuck about Dartmouth,” Chris said from where he was still in a headlock.

 

 Bitty gave them all a Look so Derek let Chris go, Dex grunting exaggeratedly loudly as Derek rolled over him to get off him. “Please, you’re heavier than me Poindexter.”

 

“At least my weight is spread out.”

 

“Fuck you,” Derek said, a laugh bursting out of him when all Dex did was raise an eyebrow at him.

 

 All was as good on this weird ass team as it had ever been.

 

 And yet…

 

 And yet the same sense of impending doom he had felt when his fifteen year old self went unprepared into a Latin final had been sat on his chest since he had woken up on the bus this morning. It had been growing heavier and more sticky, harder to ignore, as the day went on. It was almost choking him when he walked into the visitors locker room, his undershirt sticking to his clammy skin from the waves of nausea that were rolling over him.

 

 Derek had been about to pull Ford and Coach Hall to the side about an impending panic attack when Dex bounced his shoulder off of Derek’s in their usual pre-jersey ritual and it all just... went away.

 

 

_X_

 

  _It’s the middle of the night and Derek is alone with Dex at Faber._

 

_It’s utterly silent but not peaceful, a faint glow that could be dawn coming through the beautiful glass windows. It distracts Derek a moment, turning his face towards the cold light and closing his eyes so it will shine through the thin skin of his eyelids. But behind them it’s just dark._

 

_Dex is on the ice, skating lazily in jeans and flannel, hands held loosely behind his back like Bitty sometimes skated when he wasn’t thinking about what he was doing._

 

_Derek stamps his skates on the floor like he always does before stepping onto the ice, jolting sightly at how smooth it is._

 

_Derek skates to the other side of the rink, then back, circling centre ice like always. It feels colder than usual, a bite on his cheeks as a breeze moves through his hair that he only ever feels when playing pond hockey in the middle of winter._

 

_Dex comes past, barely sparing Derek a glance. He’s not ignoring him, Derek decides, just deep in thought. He circles his way closer to Derek, eyes downcast, hands still behind his back. It’s not how he usually skates. Dex is all long levers, his centre of gravity higher than Derek’s, but now he looks weighty on his skates._

 

_Derek turns to follow Dex’s route so he would eventually fall in next to him. He watches his skates move against the ice, twisting to skate backwards so he can watch the white trails he is leaving on the opaque surface, like so many veins on some forgotten creature living out of the sight of the sun for centuries._

 

_Or, he thought with a graceless snort, Dex in February. But his veins were blue. A weird turquoise, ocean blue that ran down the vulnerable insides of his bony wrists and along the inside of his thighs that were more muscle than anything else. Like cracks in the pack ice, Derek thought._

 

_He lets himself get distracted thinking about that Blue Planet bit with the Narwhals, and how crazy it was that their horn thing was a tooth? Nature was wild. He looks up to share this thought with Dex, expecting him to be skating close by. When he wasn’t within sight Derek looks around, coming to a halt when he spots Dex behind the goal at the other end of the ice._

 

_He frowns at the back of Dex’s head, following the angle of it up towards the windows to try and see what he was looking at. But it was just that glow of the dawn sky still, a single dark shape of a bird flying across it._

 

_He makes his way over slowly, feeling like it was too quiet in here to yell. The shadows were too thick to disturb._

 

_Derek was just passing through what would be his D-circle when there was a creaking noise, like the sound the bunkbeds made when someone climbed the ladder._ _Dex falls straight through the ice, arms flying out like he was a ragdoll that had been dropped, and disappears between the jagged shards of white. Derek feels himself yell but there is no sound in the stillness. He almost falls over his skates as he comes to a stop at the edge of the hole, looking down hoping to see a flash of red but there was just endless dark, dark water._

 

 He jolted awake so hard he whacked his foot on the ladder. He yelled, curling over to grab his toes, too disorientated to notice Dex ducked under the top bunk to lean over him. “Derek!”

 

“Fuck.”

 

“Nurse!”

 

 Derek took a deep breath, looking at the familiar knot in the wood panel next to his pillow as he let reality settle on him. “Shit,” he groaned, rolling over onto his back and looking up at Dex. “Fuck.”

 

“You okay man?”

 

“Nightmare,” he croaked, cleared his throat, and then squinted up at Dex who looked as on edge and as half away ask Derek felt. “You too huh?”

 

“What?”

 

“Nightmare?”

 

“Yeah. Suppose,” Dex said, eyes flicking around uncertainly before landing back on Derek. “Must be the bunkbeds,” he said drily, the faintest twinkle in his eye giving away that it was a joke and Derek smiled up at him.

 

“It’s not the Haus that’s haunted, it’s the bunk beds,” Derek said as he moved to the side, eyeing the top bunk when the supports creaked. He didn’t offer Dex the space next to him as, much like an especially crotchety ginger tom, you had to let him chose to come to you. Well, maybe not quite that bad, but as Dex squeezed himself next to Derek on the slightly sagging mattress he allowed himself to feel proud that it worked.

 

“We’ll have to let Ransom know.”

 

“So he can do factually correct yelling about ghosts not being real?”

 

“Exactly,” Dex said softly, eyes drifting closed as Derek watched him fall back to sleep.

 

 He shifted onto his side to give Dex a little more room, ducking his head down on his pillow so he would stop staring at him. He ended up with his cheek just brushing the smooth skin of Dex’s shoulder, curling into the comfort of another persons body heat as he slipped off into a doze.

 

 

_X_

 

“And then you see this parenthesis here has to - no wait that that’s...fuck okay so now I have to delete all that again because I’m a fool…”

 

“You’re not a fool.”

 

“I’m a fool who can’t do fractions. Right okay soooo…”

 

 Derek smiled, letting his head fall back against the desk as he stretched one leg out so his foot almost touched Dex’s. He was sat in the middle of a small explosion of paper that had happened on the rug next to the bunk beds, curled over his maths problems and talking half to his calculator and half at Derek

 

“...fifteen….no...what - where. Squared...Where are you, where are you?” Dex muttered to himself as he began searching through his sheets of working out.

 

“Eleven and twenty squared is what you’ve been talking about,” Derek said, watching Dex peer at his laptop before shooting Derek a smile of thanks.

 

 Maths was not as impenetrable to Derek as most Arts students claimed, so he had never had much of a problem keeping up with Chris and Dex when they started muttering about numbers. Not that he had much clue exactly what Dex had been muttering about for the past fifteen minuets, but luckily he was used to talking to the little stuffed Support Lobster that Lardo had got him for his birthday freshman year that had become something of a mascot for the STEM majors on the team.

 

 Dex had been half ignoring Derek talk about prose and verse on roadies for the past two years, the occasional opinion the only sign he was paying any attention at all. So now they were roommates Derek didn’t mind being the lobster every so often; something about the softness of Dex’s voice when he was speaking to himself was soothing, even with his jarring Maine vowels.

 

 “You’re cute when you’re math-ing,” Derek said, smiling to himself when the momentary pause on the scrape of pencil on paper signalled Dex flipping him off.

 

 The Haus made lots of creaking and popping noises, the plumbing rattling and whirring in the winter despite Dex’s best efforts. So the tap-tap-tapping noise wasn’t odd enough to really grab Derek’s attention away from his work. That came with the sharp clatter of Dex's calculator hitting the floor as his jumped to his feet and scaring the shit out of Derek. He grabbed at his laptop to stop it tipping off of his knees, watching Dex skid in over the floorboards in his socks in his rush to the window.

 

“What the…” Derek started, lifting himself up to try and peek out of the window. He expected Chris out there, or maybe Shitty (it wouldn’t be the first time he climbed onto the roof rather than use the front door when visiting). Maybe even a rogue LAX Bro trying some shit. But no, for once in this Haus it wasn’t something fucking weird. “Is that a bird?”

 

 Dex grunted in reply, wiggling open the window that always got stuck in its frame during the winter no matter what Dex did.

 

“Dude, its just a bird what the…”

 

“No it’s not,” Dex muttered, finally getting the window open.

 

“It’s...bruh do not let that thing in here!!”

 

“Don’t worry. I won’t let it shit in your Timberlands,” Dex said as he leant out of the window to shoo it off the roof.

 

“Dexy!”

 

“What!”

 

“Leave it alone. What’s your damage?”

 

“Nothing,” Dex ground out as he pulled the window closed.

 

 The straight lines of his shoulders were tense as he stood looking out over the street. Derek frowned at him, noticing the weak sunlight bringing out sprinkle of gold in his hair for the hundredth time, and frowned harder. Dex could be weird - Derek didn’t even like to call some of the things he did weird they were so obviously ticks and quirks - but this was weird.

 

 And yet that bird had been a Magpie. And Dex had been being weird about them for the past few months.

 

 Derek smiled, “I knew you were superstitious.”

 

“What?” Dex snapped, twisting to look at Derek.

 

“Magpies and bad luck. I knew you were superstitious.”

 

“Shut up.”

 

“You owe me.”

 

 Dex sighed, and looked out of the window again, “Fuck.”

 

 

_X_

 

“So, you know, it’s uh - it’s a legitimate platform to get your music heard. I know it has a bad reputation but I don’t…”

 

“Yeah Louis brah, I totes get you.”

 

“...I don’t rap. I could in Swedish but it doesn’t sound right,” Louis burst out into his clipped, dry laugh. “At least wouldn’t be rapping in Danish - right?”

 

 Derek hmm-d in agreement, not yet up to speed enough on his Waffle’s European in-jokes to join in yet.

 

“I think as long as you don’t go up to people and say ‘hey here’s my soundcloud’ it’d go over...better.” Derek trailed off, attention caught by someone who looked at lot by Dex standing at the bank of the frozen Lake.

 

 That nasty feeling - the one from Dartmouth- was back and Derek stopped, Louis going on a couple of paces before stopping as well.

 

“What's up?” Louis asked, stepping closer to him and following Derek’s gaze out towards the lake.

 

 This wasn't right. But just what wasn't right he couldn't say.

 

“One sec Louis,” he mumbled, setting off down the incline towards the edge of the lake, picking up speed when Dex stepped out onto the ice. “Shit. Dex! Dex bro what the fuck are you doing?”

 

 Dex didn't answer, just moved further out onto the ice. Derek looked back towards a confused looking Louis who was following him down towards the bank.

 

“Shit,” he dropped his bag onto the grass and carefully slid out onto the lake.

 

 Every year at Andover they would get a lecture about the dangers of ice before playing pond hockey and Derek was glad hehad bothered to pay attention as it all came back now. He let his legs splay out like Bambi to spread his weight as he made his was over to Dex who had stopped, facing away from Derek in a way that was freakishly like a dream he could only half remember.

 

“Dex, bro, please come here,” Derek called, not wanting to go any further because this was so dangerous. He was looking around to see what he could grab on to if Dex did go through the ice when he thought he heard humming coming from him.

 

‘ _Great_ ’ Derek muttered under his breath ‘ _Now he chooses to sing to me_.’ He took a deep breath and then slid as close as he dared. “STEM isn't worth freaking out like this, Dexy. Come on in brah.”

 

 The crashing whistle of wings beating drew his attention back to the bank. Cait and Bitty were stood there looking panicked, Louis holding Derek's bag as he went to pick up… to pick up Dex’s. From where he dropped it as he tried to find his way onto the ice, swearing and yelling at Derek the whole time.

 

 Derek let himself slide back a few paces before forcing himself to look at who he had followed out onto the ice.

 

 It wasn’t Dex. It was ginger and warm eyed but it had no freckles, not a single one, on all it’s pallid, overly smooth skin.

 

 Derek stared at it, shocked and vaguely aware of Dex making his way out to him. “Wha…” Derek started but it blinked jerkily, like the shutters of an old camera. Derek swore, making to take a step back when his sneaker caught on a patch of slippery ice and his legs went out from under him, sending him crashing onto his ass.

 

 Panic finally kicked in when there was a deep snap of the ice under him. He sat there frozen in horror as whatever it was started to walk towards the edge of the crack his stupid, huge hockey body had made and began stamping on it to make the jagged line splinter and grow.

 

 It was still humming under its breath which wasn’t really Derek's main concern at that moment but his brain kept on coming back to it. He was going to fucking drown and that tuneless humming was all he could fucking worry about.

 

 Suddenly, gloriously, Dex was there, skidding in like he was dumping someone off the puck and grabbed Derek by the back of his hoodie. He tugged and nearly slipped over, Derek scrabbling his feet against the ice to try and get some traction to help Dex haul him backwards.

 

 “Fuck off!” Dex yelled, which was so startlingly _him_ that Derek nearly burst into hysterical laughter.

 

 It said something, Derek not sure if it just had a weird accent or that panic was making everything sound like he was underwater, and moved closer. Derek tried to scramble backbut Dex stepped between them. “I said fuck off.”

 

 It's faced screwed up like it was about to pitch a fit, not looking at all like Dex now even though Derek had seen that expression on his face more often than not.

 

“Try it and I'll fucking kill you,” Dex hissed with enough venom in his voice Derek actually believed he would do it.

 

 The crack in the ice grew and split under its feet and for a moment Derek feared they'd all be dumped into the lake when whatever that fuck that was jumped into the dark water instead. “What the fuck,” Derek breathed, looking up at Dex not sure whether to thank him or fear him. “What in the actual fuck Dex.”

 

 “I'm gonna drag you further away from the hole. If you try to get up you'll prob fall through anyway,” was all he said, grabbing Derek by the back of the hoodie and pulling.

 

 Bitty was a second away from a heart attack when they got back to solid ground, Derek wobbling to his feet with Cait and Louis’ help as his knees felt like they had turned to jelly. “Good Lord Nursey what on Earth were you doin'? Y'all know how dangerous that ice is out there. Honey are you okay? Y'all nearly gave me a heart attack. It's lucky Dex got to you before you went in I almost called campus security I am...yall could have died,” Bitty turned from fussing over Derek to wrap Dex up in a hug. “Don't know whether to call you brave or stupid honey.”

 

“I'm not gonna let Nurse get hurt,” Dex said, holding Derek's gaze over Bitty’s head as he patted him awkwardly on the back until he let Dex go.

 

 Derek made to ask again what the fuck that was, but no-one else was talking about the guy who had jumped into the lake. He decided to keep that for when he was alone with Dex who was looking ashen under his freckles.

 

 Dex’s unwillingness to talk and Derek's stunned silence made for a quiet walk back to the Haus. Bitty had run ahead to probably make them an almost dying pie or something, Cait sending Louis off to do Waffle things with a promise to let him know how Derek was.

 

“Take off your hoodie,” Dex said as he walked Derek straight up to their room.

 

“No. I’m shivering!”

 

 Dex went over to the bunk beds and pulled down his weighted blanket, “You heat up more if you wear less layers between you and whatever is insulated.”

 

 Derek grumbled, making a production out of getting out of his hoodie before taking the blanket from Dex and going to drop onto the beanbag by the radiator. Dex disappeared and came back with food and a worried Bitty who only left after Derek had finished the - delicious as always - strawberry pie.

 

 He took a sip of water after Bitty closed the door, looking up at Dex who was shifting on the balls of his feet. “Do you need…”

 

“What the fuck was that?”

 

Dex sighed and dropped down to sit next to Derek on the floor. He leant back against the wall, pushing his sleeves up past his elbows and turned to look at him. “My dad fell through the ice when I was seven. He only survived ‘cause our dogs were barking like crazy and got my uncle over. He said he saw my mom out in the middle of a river…”

 

“Your mom?”

 

“Yeah. He swore it was her but she was at work in the boat yard. I...this is gonna sound like - like small town in Maine bullshit I know. But there aren’t really Magpies where I live, but their were a few that year. My grandma says they warn you when bad shit is gonna happen."

 

“Bad shit...You were freaking out about the birds. You knew. And you didn’t think to warn me?”

 

“Oh yeah. _Hey Nurse the birds told me someone’s gonna try and - and_...you get me.”

 

“Try and drown me!?”

 

 Dex licked his lips, eyes flicking around the room before shifting closer to Derek. “I thought if I didn’t - if I kept away then you’d be okay.”

 

“Kept away?”

 

Dex gave him a half pleading, half exasperated look and Derek let out a soft ‘oh’, reaching out to gently grasp Dex’s wrist. “Let’s blame hypothermia for that one.”

 

“You don’t have hypothermia.”

 

“Why would you need to keep away? I wanted you to not keep away.”

 

 Dex’s face scrunched up, looking like he didn’t know if he should go on or not, his pale, pale brown eyes catching the overhead light and glinting like the sun through autumn leaves. “It's always...my grandma said it used to happen in the village in Norway...”

 

“Your grandma….” Derek’s sluggish brain went completely blank after getting that far and snapped his mouth shut. He let go of Dex’s wrist to rub a hand over his face and sighed long and deep. “You know what. I don’t think I wanna know any more than that.”

 

“So...yeah. That’s why I don’t. You know. Date.”

 

“Because - No. I don’t wanna…I’m not even...we’re not.”

 

“You said you didn’t wanna know any more,” Dex said, looking as pained as he sounded.

 

“Shit,” Derek pulled the blanket further around his shoulders, a shiver shooting through him now he wasn’t so distracted anymore. “You would be fucking cursed to never fuck or some shit.”

 

Dex rolled his eyes. “Or some shit,” he said and made to get up, making a hilariously White ‘oop’ noise when Derek yanked him half onto the bean bag with him.

 

“Give me your body heat asshole,” he demanded, throwing half the blanket around Dex as he pushed against his side. “It’s better than blankets. Thought you’d know that, boat boy.”

 

 Dex sighed but didn’t push away. Instead he shoved at Derek until his large ass was on mostly on the beanbag, Derek resting his head on his shoulder so he could look down at their feet tangled together.

 

 Derek wasn’t really cold. He’d done nothing to _get_ cold and Dex knew that. He could be as much of a mom friend as Bitty but he didn’t let it steamroller him like Bits sometimes did - if you were being dramatic he’d tell you to your face to cut it out. But he hadn’t called Derek out yet. He was indulging him, and Derek had to wonder if it was because he could have been hurt today, or that Dex had actually been frightened for him.

 

 Three years ago he’d have hated being treated so gently by anyone, let alone _Poindexter_. A year ago he’d have wanted to hide after showing enough of himself that someone could tell he needed this. But now he was too glad of the broad, nearly two-hundred pound body he was leaning on to think much about it. Nothing could get you if someone as big and as feisty as Dex was wrapped around you. Derek pulled back enough to glance at Dex - nothing would dare to get that close.

 

 Dex didn’t say anything, and didn’t fidget much under him as Derek let the shivers cease and his overly sharp thoughts mellow out. He didn’t poke Derek in the side or say something to break the moment when Derek finally relaxed against him. He just let Derek lay there.

 

 Derek reached out and wrapped his fingers around Dex’s palm that was resting on his own thigh. Dex’s arm tensed, the tendon’s standing out in his boney wrist, but instead of pulling away he tilted his hand so Derek could hold it more securely.

 

 “Fifteen years,” Derek murmured, propping his chin on Dex’s shoulder so he could look at he line of his profile, “That’s how long it was between your dad going through the ice and today. Is that...something to do with it?”

 

 Dex slid him a look, “Maybe?”

 

 Derek nodded and put his head back on Dex’s chest. Fifteen years was plenty of time to see if this was worth it. If this all meant what he hoped it did.

 

 He tightened his grip on Dex’s hand and he squeezed back. Derek kinda hoped he got a chance to try and found out one way or another.

 

 

_X_

 

 Up on the roof of the Haus, one Magpie hopped up to the other, chittered, and then they both flew away.

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> This is based on a traditional nursery rhyme about Magpies, and the song called Magpie by Unthanks that I cannot be bothered to link there. And also vaguely a Knokken from Scandinavian mythology, but I didn't go into that as I often find the unexplained to be more creepy than things given too much detail *sips starbucks and heelys away*


End file.
